The Crisis of Democracy

The Crisis of Democracy: On the Governability an inability to maintain international trade, balanced budof Democracies was initially a 1975 report written gets and hegemonic power in the world.
by Michel Crozier, Samuel P. Huntington, and Joji
Watanuki for the Trilateral Commission and later published as a book.
2 Reception
The report observed the political state of the United
States, Europe and Japan and says that in the United
States the problems of governance stem from an excess
of democracy" and thus advocates to restore the prestige
and authority of central government institutions..[1] The
report serves as an important point of reference for studies focusing on the contemporary crisis of democracies.[2]

1
1.1

It has been observed by critics that many members of

the Trilateral Commission had roles in the Carter Administration and have been inuenced by the report.[3]
Specically, Zbigniew Brzezinski stated the conclusions
of the report in an op-ed for the St. Petersburg Times.[4]
Noam Chomsky has cited the report as an example of reactionary policies coming from the 'liberal' wing of the
state capitalist ruling elite.[3]

Overview
3 New Crisis of Democracy

Europe

In 2013 Fareed Zakaria wrote that the United States is

facing a new crisis of democracy in which there is low
approval of political institutions, political paralysis and
poor democratically made decisions (such as low taxes
and high government spending).[5]

The report outlines that in 1960s Western Europe the

governments are overloaded with participants and demands which the highly bureaucratic political systems
are unable to handle and thus is becoming ungovernable.
It points to a political decision made by France that was
made in semisecret, without open political debate, but
with a tremendous amount of lobbying and intrabureaucratic conict.

4 See also
Political Order in Changing Societies

1.2

United States

The Limits to Growth

Powell Memorandum

The vitality of democracy in the United States in the

1960s produced a substantial increase in governmental
activity and a substantial decrease in governmental authority.

5 References

Samuel P. Huntington
[1] The Crisis of Democracy Trilateral Commission Report,
pg. 123, 179

The report says the problems of the United States in the

1960s was the impulse of democracy is to make government less powerful and more active, to increase its functions, and to decrease its authority and concludes these
demands are contradictory. The impulse for the undermining of legitimacy was said to be done by new activism,
an adversarial news media while the increase in government was said to be due to the Cold War defense budget and Great Society programs. Thus what is said to be
needed is a balance is to be restored between governmental activity and governmental authority. The eects
of this excess of democracy if not xed are said to be

[2] Ercan, S.A and Gagnon J-P. (2014) The Crisis of Democracy: Which Crisis? Which Democracy?, Democratic
Theory, Volume 1, Number 2, Winter 2014, pp. 110(10). Abstract: The introductory article to this special issue highlights three fundamental yet often neglected
questions related to the current diagnosis of a crisis of
democracy: What is meant by the term crisis? Which
democracy is in crisis? And what, if anything, is new
about the current crisis of democracy? We answer these
questions by considering the multi-vocal contribution of
purposefully curated short articles in this special issue. We
argue that when engaging with the crisis of democracy

diagnosis, it is important to unpack not only the normative presumptions one has in relation to what democracy
is and should be, but also the recent transformations in the
way politics is understood and practiced in contemporary
societies.
[3] "The Carter Administration: Myth and Reality", Noam
Chomsky
[4] "Examining the crisis of democracyAug 2, 1974, St. Petersburg Times
[5] "Can America Be Fixed? The New Crisis of Democracy,
Fareed Zakaria.

External links
The Crisis of Democracy, Trilateral Commission
Report, New York University Press
Downsize Democracy for 40 Years and Heres What
You Get, MURRAY DOBBIN, CounterPunch

EXTERNAL LINKS

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

Text

The Crisis of Democracy Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Crisis%20of%20Democracy?oldid=645381332 Contributors: InverseHypercube, CartoonDiablo, John, Bellerophon5685, Magioladitis, Canadafof, GrahamHardy, Mardhil, Drpickem, Skyerise, Xanchester, BG19bot, Shaad lko, Sailingfanblues, IjonTichyIjonTichy, Malerooster, Hexangel, ColaBickford, Msaerc and Anonymous: 3

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